Force India starts off on the right foot in Australia

The process of improving Force India's performance, highlighted in the winter tests, culminated today in the ninth fastest time achieved by Fisichella in the afternoon free practice session in Melbourne. Together with Sutil, the Roman driver completed a total of 101 laps today.

Giancarlo Fisichella:
"Today was a good challenge and things look promising. Over the winter we made a good step forward and with the new parts we have available here we don't look bad at all. I'm happy with the work we've done so far and Both the team and I are working well: although there is a lot to do - and we will likely face difficulties - it's a really good start."

Adrian Sutil:
"I think today went quite well. The track was slippery at the start and therefore it was difficult to find a good starting balance. Apart from the first run, however, I was satisfied and there was no needed to change a lot during the two sessions. We had a small leak in the hydraulic system in the morning, problem quickly solved, and in the second session some times in the long runs were good. In the end I was a bit unlucky: having found traffic on my fastest lap I wasted the new tyres, without being able to lower the time, but tomorrow is another day and I really believe we can do better than last year".

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer:
"An excellent day, in which we concentrated on tires and race set-up, with the only problem being a slight hydraulic leak on Adrian's car. Overall, the tires were affected by 'graining' at the front on the longer distances, but with the progressive tires of the circuit I'm sure that things will improve. Overall it went well and we confirmed the progress made over the winter. Now we have to transfer these improvements into qualifying and the race."

Force India